The Belem Tower - It was built for fortification, but the king thought it was so nice he used it for celebrations when the explorers and seamen set sail and returned home.
The 25th of April Bridge, built by the same people who made the Golden gate Bridge, as we sailed into the sunset.
Trays of the famous Pasteis de Belem.
The tomb of Vasco da Gama who was the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope and reach India.
The Castle of St. George which commands the heights of the city
A street scene in the Alfama District, the oldest in Lisbon
A view of the city from the ramparts of the Castle of St. George
One of the tile panels in the Tile Museum. Notice the oriental motif with a pagoda and peacocks
Our escort into Lisbon was this tug shooting water cannons. Quite spectacular!
This morning we sailed up the Tagus River passing the resort towns of Cascais and Estoril on our way to Lisbon. The transit is quite spectacular as we passed under the April 25th Suspension Bridge, built by the same people that made the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the longest suspension bridge in Europe until recently. We docked at noon and were ashore quickly for our private tour.
Lisbon sits on one bank of the Tagus River, one of the two longest rivers on the Iberian Peninsula (the other being the Duoro). The Tagus also has the largest estuary of any European river. The city is perched on hills . Much of it was destroyed in a 9.0 earthquake in 1755 which also caused a massive tsunami.
We made our way first to the Tile Museum. Portugal is famous for its ceramic tiles which decorate many of the buildings. We only had 45 minutes in the museum, but we could have spent hours. The variety of panels made of tiles was incredible. Next we headed through the Alfama District, the oldest surviving part of the city, to the Castle of St. George which sits atop a hill with a dramatic view of the city below. The castle was named St. George to honor English crusaders who on their way to the Holy Land helped to expel the Moors from the area around Lisbon. The Portuguese king was so grateful that he named the castle for the English patron saint. The Portuguese and English have a long-standing treaty arrangement and friendship dating back nearly 700 years.
Our next visit was to the newer central part of the city where the main shopping district lies. There are pedestrian streets and lots of cafes. There were a lot of shops with beautiful textiles. Too bad I can’t sew!
Our final stop was the Belem District where we visited the Jeronimos Monastery and Church, the burial place of Vasco da Gama (the great explorer who rounded the Cape of Good Hope). We made a stop at the café that serves the famous Pasteis de Belem, the trademark pastry of Portugal. The café serves an average of 15,000 pastries a day with as many as 50,000 on holidays. We stopped for a photo op at the Belem Tower and the Discoverer’ Monument before heading back to the ship. Our guide Karla did a great job giving us lots of information about the history of this beautiful city. We were sorry we only had five hours to spend there.
As we sailed away we had a glorious view of everything with the setting sun making everything appear to be gilded with gold. It’s a lovely sailaway – not as good as Venice, but still beautiful.
Now we’re on our way across the Atlantic with a brief stop in the Azores.
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